Despite the obscure origin of Ligeia and the origin of the narrator's love for her, the certainty of that love is so strong that the narrator's entire being is suffused with it. He is totally devoted to the Lady Ligeia. This lady, besides having a rare and perfect knowledge of many fields of study, possesses a rare understanding of life. In addition, her beauty is unique: she is tall and slender with a "placid cast of beauty" and she speaks with the "thrilling eloquence of [a] low musical language." Even though she later becomes "emaciated," no "maiden ever equalled her" in beauty of person. The most outstanding feature of Ligeia is, perhaps, her hair; it is glossy and luxuriant — "hyacinthine," in the author's words. Her eyes and lashes are beyond the beauty of "beings either above or apart from the earth." Yet the Lady Ligeia is not so blandly pure that she could be called "perfect," for the narrator says that she was also "most violently a prey to the tumultuous vultures of stern passion." Curiously, despite the woman's magnificent physical beauty, the narrator values her most, perhaps, for her mind — that is, for the narrator, her main attribute is the fact that she was always there beside him to help him in his studies. Her wisdom is consummate; the narrator is fully aware that she is infinitely superior to him in the "chaotic world of metaphysical investigations," and he is content to let her guide him through these studies. Without her, he would have been a mere child groping through this strange and alien field of study.
For a period of time, it would seem, the relationship between the narrator and Ligeia was ideal; then suddenly, without any warning signs, the Lady Ligeia grew ill. As a ghostly hue covered her being, she still expressed a strong desire to live. As death approached closer and closer, she would pour out "the overflowing of a heart whose more than passionate devotion amounted to idolatry" towards the narrator. At the end, she asked him to read a poem she had written about the ability to conquer life. The poem, which is as central to this story as "The Haunted Palace" was to "The Fall of the House of Usher," is set in a theater where the audience is composed of angels, and the actors are mimes (silent creatures) who are controlled by strange formless creatures, or things. Suddenly, a phantom appears upon the stage and chases the mimes, but ultimately a "crawling shape intrudes" and
